


ghosts are many things

by icerebel



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: (not much but just to be safe), Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bad Parenting, Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Tags Are Hard, im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:33:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28799160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icerebel/pseuds/icerebel
Summary: Clockwork has always been fascinated with how small changes bring forth enormous consequences. This one, he did not like./// If Vlad hadn't survived his accident, the Fentons were left with pure hatred for ghosts, and what happens when they find out Danny's secret.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92
Collections: Love dan





	ghosts are many things

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as i was half asleep and was not even proof-read. Publishing it because i know i would forget about it otherwise and if i had to go though the angst of /what ifs/, so do you.  
> Because look... The Fentons are good parent (or at least presented as such), but they refuse to believe a ghost could NOT be evil through almost the whole series. But what if Vlad didn't survive, what if that fueled their hatred tenfold? If they didn't laugh cheerily when chasing ghost, but instead they were purely enraged by them - ghosts killed their best friend after all.   
> It really made me wonder.

Clockwork has always been fascinated with how small changes bring forth enormous consequences. This one, he did not like.

Vlad Masters was building a portal with his friends. If he were later able to speak (as a human or a ghost), he would tell you how he felt compelled to take another inch closer to the portal that fateful day. But he was not, as Vlad himself was no more. Funny how an inch had changed it all.

When talking about ghosts, the Fentons do not manically smile anymore. No, there is only hatred in their eyes. And when they find out about Danny? When they see him accidentally phase through the stairway railing and when he tries to tell them he’s still himself? They shoot. They shout. And he runs.

He runs through the door, he runs outside, too scared to go ghost. He still tries to convince them, and they still shoot. They are in public now. They are in public the moment Jack shoots him in his back, the moment their son falls onto the ground, and they are still in public when the people start to notice two adults trying to catch… their own son?

When Maddie tries to stab Daniel, shouting about “ghost scum” and tries to “see him bleed green,” when the mother succeeds in sticking her small knife in the boy’s upper arm and _drags_ it down, he bleeds – he bleeds red.

And the people keep shouting at them, because the Fentons were always creepy, and angry, and ghost obsessed, but harmless to humans, and yet they attack _their flesh and blood_. There are calls to the police, there are women, trying to reach the poor boy, who’s screaming in pain (the pain in his arm, and the pain in his heart), there are men, who are battling Jack for his ectogun (it may not be as lethal to humans as it is to ghosts, but it is painful and it leaves a _mark_ ), but the Fentons are rabid. They cannot reach him.

But Skulker can. Skulker sees his chance, he flies out of nowhere, finally grabs the boy he’s been trying to catch for years and he disappears.

***

Ghosts are many things, but abusers they are not. They are many things, but they protect their own. Even if they are only half.

***

The Fenton boy, Daniel, disappears. Some claim his parents managed to track him down and kill him for good, others claim he ran away. There are also those that believe he is now but a pelt in Skulker’s haunt.

Phantom is gone, too. As are almost all ghosts.

People do not know why at first. Then a young boy stops the lone ghost of a teen girl in cashier clothing (died a year ago, robbery gone wrong, but they do not think of that) as he passes her in the park at night, asks her about it. “To hang around the place where a parent would publicly murder their own child? I’d rather die.”

Apparently ghosts despise abuse.

***

People try to find the boy of course. Maddie and Jack sit in jail, while search parties go around. They still sit in jail as Jazz comes back home, only to break down crying. They still sit in jail when two weeks are passed and Tucker speaks for the first time after it all (“I hope they rot in jail.”) and Sam is left with nothing to say, nothing left to yell (she has said it all).

***

Ghosts are many things. They are obsessive, they are odd, they are defensive, and aggressive, and sometimes evil, and, and …

But they cannot bear for anyone to really suffer true pain. They are obsessed with safety (for themselves, for their haunt, for their lair, for their people), they have odd friendships and an even odder family, they defend their own with fever and aggression and they will attack you with no mercy to protect it all.

Danny is one of them after all. He is but a child, and they are his family. So Skulker brings him to safety, to the Ghost Zone, where Walker brings him a blanket and Jonny 13 walks up to ruffle his hair with a scoff. So Kitty hugs him, while the child sobs in her arms and Clockwork watches. _He will be safe here_ , he knows. And Daniel knows so, too.

**Author's Note:**

> i really need to go to sleep


End file.
